Just A couple of weeks ago, in a conversation with an important person in the Broncos organization, the subject transitioned to Mark Sanchez.

"How is he doing?" I asked.

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"Okay," he said.

There was not a touch of enthusiasm in his voice.

"He's got to find a way to control the mistakes," he said.

In other words, nothing changed with the former Jets boy wonder from his back-to-back seasons of 26 turnovers in 2011 and 2012, which eventually led to him being run out of town. If Sanchez thought being forced to compete in Cortland with Tim Tebow, the lefty hitting outfielder, was the low point, or losing out to Nick Foles and Sam Bradford in Philly was rock bottom, well, he found out differently Monday.

Sanchez has six career playoffs starts, defeated Peyton Manning and Tom Brady on consecutive weekends in the 2010 playoffs and twice been to the AFC title game, but was beaten out for the starting job in Denver by Trevor Siemian, a seventh-round pick from Northwestern in 2015 who has never thrown a regular-season pass.

That, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, is the official pits.

Sanchez is now in jeopardy of not even making the team. He has $1 million guaranteed out of his $4.5 million salary, so the Broncos can save $3.5 million and the conditional seventh-round pick they traded to get him if they release him. It's also possible Denver will keep Sanchez as veteran insurance with only Siemian and rookie Paxton Lynch on the roster, but perhaps at a reduced price. Siemian is making $525,000 this season.

Sanchez believed he hit the jackpot when he was traded from Philly with a chance to start for the champs. He held Broncos West with his receivers in SoCal in the offseason to work on chemistry.

"I'm not married. I don't have a girlfriend. I don't have kids," Sanchez said after the trade. "I just want to play and I want to win. I'm so lucky to be in a spot like this."

Long gone are the days of the bromance between Rex Ryan and Sanchez with the Jets. (Antonelli, Ron)

Gary Kubiak broke the news to the Broncos in their morning team meeting that Siemian had won the job and will run out with the first-team offense when the champs begin defense of their title in Denver in a Super Bowl rematch with the Panthers on Sept. 8.

It always seemed beyond even the wildest imagination that Sanchez — who eventually flopped with the Jets after helping them to the AFC title games in his first two seasons, and then fell flat in Philly after some initial success — would inherit the job after John Elway traded for him in March a few days after Peyton Manning retired and Brock Osweiler signed with the Texans.

Surely, Elway could do better. After dealing for Sanchez and having just Siemian as the only other QB on the roster, Elway attempted to deal for Colin Kaepernick, but there were contract issues. One month later, he traded up to get Lynch in the first round.

If Sanchez gets cut or traded, then Dallas, (with no experienced QB on the roster with Tony Romo injured again), or Seattle (in need of a backup to Russell Wilson, creating a reunion with Pete Carroll) are logical next spots.

As poorly as Sanchez has played since his first two years with the Jets, how could he not beat out Siemian, who took one snap — a kneel down — as a rookie? Clearly, Siemian benefitted from his one year being around Manning and despite being the 250th player and the last of the seven quarterbacks taken last year, he is now one of 32 starters.

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Trevor Siemian, a former seventh round pick, is named the defending Super Bowl champions starting quarterback for the upcoming season. (Joe Mahoney/AP)

Elway has established himself as one of the best GMs after a Hall of Fame playing career. Kubiak spent nine years backing up Elway. These two know quarterbacks. They would rather take their chances with Siemian than watch the inevitable Sanchez implosion. The Broncos are just the third defending Super Bowl champ to start the next season without the QB who led them to the title. The Ravens didn't re-sign Trent Dilfer in 2001 and Elway retired in 1999. But the Broncos are taking it a step further going with a QB who has yet to throw a pass in a regular season game.

Last season, the Broncos played with a diminished Manning and the inexperienced Osweiler and then played around Manning — he was reduced to a game manager — in the postseason. They let the defense get them to the Super Bowl and then win it. They will try to win by not putting Siemian in position to lose.

Sanchez started the preseason opener and had a TD and an INT. Siemian started the second game with Sanchez coming off the bench. Kubiak told Sanchez before breakfast the morning of the third game he would not be playing that night. Players who don't get on the field in the third game are usually in big trouble.

S anchez was benched in favor of a player who had 27 TDs and 24 INTs at Northwestern, including seven TDs and 11 INTs in his senior season. Northwestern is not known as a QB factory other than turning out Paddy Driscoll and Otto Graham.